The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes

This book is truly uncommonly good!  It's a marvelous read about historic midwifery and a modern midwife.  I could not put this book down.  I instantly liked Ashley and felt drawn into her relationship with her patients.  This book is a good blend of intrigue/mystery, spiritual advice woven into the dialogue between characters and tender romance.  I was impressed with how the author was able to get across some very deep spiritual truths but in a natural way not contrived.  This is how Christian story telling should be done!  Pick up this book and take a little trip into the Appalachian mountains and learn not only a bit about the culture there but a lot about love, forgiveness and how being perfect is highly overrated when God's grace appears.

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

If you don't believe in being saved 100% by grace hold on to your hats.  Maybe this book isn't for you but then again I think this book is exactly for you!  Manning has a sharp, no-nonsense approach to the most wonderful news of all.  God loves you exactly as you are.  You don't have to do a thing to earn His love or favor.  He has given all to save you and He is pursuing you with his "furious love" as Manning so artfully phrases it.  In the pages of this book you will meet a God who is far different from what a lot of us have grown up with.  This God wants to save you.  This God wants to make you whole.  This God offers a forgiveness that transforms us for our own sake not to make us worthy of His love.  Please take note of that last point.  His forgiveness transforms you...You will not remain the same.  This God's love is bigger than anything you could ever imagine.  This God's love is enough.  Period.  End of story.

The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

An addictive tale of the healing power of thankfulness and love told through the eyes of a young girl who lost everything and yet gained all.  The story starts on a train bound for a concentration camp and ends up with the heroine in South Africa.  Without spoiling the story I can say that Gretchen’s path is not the expected one.  You will be surprised, delighted, in anguish, crushed with grief and buoyed by hope, disgusted by prejudice, humbled by forgiveness and astonished at the leaps of faith and raw power that surges through a soul in love.  You won’t want to miss this book!

I received this book free from the publishers and was not required to write a positive review.